“Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger” is a hell of a fun book. Now, this review is going to be tricky. I want to write about all the amusing quips and snide remarks but there just won’t be time. In addition, if you’re unfamiliar with the characters in this book – I don’t want to ruin it by letting you in on their background stories. Suffice it to say the main characters, Max and Tom, are not your usual detective types.

Max and Tom are retired actors. They drink too much at the jazz club they own which is called “Deadbeat”. There is so much sharp sarcasm between these characters I’m surprised they don’t tear up the pages of the book. They’re likable and annoying, intriguing and hilarious.

In addition to their acting background both Max and Tom seem to be very curious. There’s a reason for this – a reason I’m not going to tell you. I want you to read the book. But the macabre curiosity they both embrace comes from an honest place.

While stumbling home from a drinking establishment in the early hours of the morning the men come across a bit of a mystery. A group of men are removing a coffin from a local Church and when the coffin falls open, they realize the body inside … is alive.

The two would-be-investigators hatch a plan to discover what’s going on with the breathing corpse and things get even more entertaining.

This story is a fun ride. Guy Adams has, somehow, found a comfortable place for this book between genres. It’s a little mystery, a little crime and a little horror (or fantasy depending on your perspective.) Whatever the formula Adams came up with – it works.

There’s a certain something about the characters Guy Adams creates that fleshes them out. It could be his acting background or maybe his love for the genre. Maybe it is the fact that he takes chances with his writing. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing guy Adams in the past and he certainly has a love of mysteries.

Adams told me that he likes to create a “messy, brave first draft” when he writes and then he re-works it. I would argue that the brave is still very much a part of this novel and I’m very glad. (Quote – Review of “Sherlock Holmes and The Army of Dr. Moreau” August 2012)

If you want to read something unique and entertaining, read this book. Finally, a mystery I can recommend to the eclectic people I know.

Max and Tom are old, old friends, who used to be actors. Tom now owns a jazz nightclub called Deadbeat which, as well as being their source of income, is also something of an in-joke. In a churchyard one night they see men loading a coffin into the back of a van. But, why take a full coffin away from a graveyard and, more importantly, why is the occupant still breathing? Tom and Max are on the case.